About the Authors

Ilya Kotomin

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH, Chemnitz, Germany

Monika Valtink

Affiliation Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Kai Hofmann

Affiliation Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gewebetransplantation, DGFG, Hannover, Germany

Annika Frenzel

Affiliation Division of Vascular Endothelium and Microcirculation, Department of Medicine III, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Henning Morawietz

Affiliations Division of Vascular Endothelium and Microcirculation, Department of Medicine III, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, CRTD / DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden—Cluster of Excellence, Dresden, Germany

Carsten Werner

Affiliations CRTD / DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden—Cluster of Excellence, Dresden, Germany, Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Dresden, Germany

Richard H. W. Funk

Affiliations Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, CRTD / DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden—Cluster of Excellence, Dresden, Germany

Katrin Engelmann

k.engelmann@skc.de

Affiliations Department of Ophthalmology, Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH, Chemnitz, Germany, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gewebetransplantation, DGFG, Hannover, Germany, CRTD / DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden—Cluster of Excellence, Dresden, Germany

Competing Interests

Please note that "Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH" is not a commercial company. Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH is the hospital where the clinical part of the study was performed. The hospital is a non-profit organization (gGmbH) (“g” means “gemeinnuetzig”, in English: non-profit) run by the Free State of Saxony and the City of Chemnitz. Katrin Engelmann and Ilya Kotomin are employees at Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH, and neither the authors nor the hospital have any competing and/or financial interests. Therefore, no further relevant declarations have to be made. A patent is pending for AmnioClip, which comprises the clip ring system and the mounting device. The patent was filed on March 3, 2014, under ref. no. EP 2633838A113157162.2 and published under ref. no. EP 2633838A1. The title of the filed patent is "Haltevorrichtung für eine Membran für eine medizinische Anwendung am Auge und Aufspannvorrichtung dazu" (in English: "Holding device for a membrane for a medical application on the eye and tensioning device for same"). The applicants of this patent are Fortech GmbH and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gewebetransplantation—gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mbH (DGFG). Fortech GmbH has no financial relations to any of the co-authors. The DGFG is a non-profit organization and the employer of one of the co-authors, KH. Though employed at one of the patent applicants, KH is not involved in patent filing or any process related to the patent, and does not benefit from the patent. A previous filing version of the patent from 2006 (filing no. 16417372) named the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. (IPF) and Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH, both non-profit organizations, as applicants. Both institutions are employers of some of the co-authors, namely CW (employed at IPF) and KE and IK (employed at Klinikum Chemnitz). This previous patent filing was replaced by the above mentioned filing from 03/11/2014. The co-authors IK, KE and CW were not and are not involved in any patent application regarding AmnioClip or any product derivative or modified thereof. They do not benefit from the patent or any process related to the patent. Therefore, all co-authors declare that they do not have any financial or commercial, professional or personal interests to disclose. The patent that is pending for AmnioClip does not alter adherence of the authors to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All materials used and methods applied to produce AmnioClip are known and publicly available. Therefore, there are no restrictions on sharing data and materials. All experimental and clinical data are given in the manuscript and supporting information files.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: IK MV HM KE. Performed the experiments: IK MV AF. Analyzed the data: IK MV AF HM KE. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CW RHWF HM. Wrote the paper: IK MV KH HM CW RHWF KE.